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Good Together: Drink + Feast with Mr Lyan and Friends

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Good food, good drink, good company – that’s the recipe for a good time. This original book sees celebrated cocktail creator and man behind White Lyan and Dandelyan bars in London, Mr Lyan, call on his many friends from the world’s best restaurants to share their favourite dishes.

From an enormous summer BBQ to an intimate romantic dinner, it covers an impressive range of occasions and holidays, showing how a great feast and delicious cocktails can easily be part of everyone’s lives and social gatherings. A menu of world-class cocktails are crafted to suit recipes contributed by chefs including Nuno Mendes (Chiltern Firehouse), James Lowe (Lyle’s), Nieves Barragán Mohacho (Barrafina), Roca (El Celler de can Roca), Robin Gill (The Dairy), Isaac McHale (The Clove Club), Tien Ho (Whole Foods) and Richard Hart (Tartine) among many others, in this unique guide to the complete social gathering.

A masterclass in bringing together the very best food and drink to create a home gathering with impact, this book is the ultimate guide to entertaining guests with style.

224 pages, Hardcover

Published September 28, 2017

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Ryan Chetiyawardana

10 books1 follower

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5 stars
6 (37%)
4 stars
7 (43%)
3 stars
1 (6%)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Annie.
4,826 reviews89 followers
December 14, 2017
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Food is such a vital part of our lives. For many professionals, free time and socializing are almost foreign concepts. This book is a celebration of getting together and relaxing and enjoying the people we care for at the same time as we eat and enjoy good food.

Almost everyone seems to have some foods from their past which are tied into some shared family history. Aunt Gen's cranberry orange salad, gran's chestnut turkey dressing, that broccoli cheddar casserole that cousin Judy always brings... etc.

This book is a very adventurous trendy gastronomique version of those homey dishes. These are edgy, impressive, challenging and (to me) very unusual. The collaborators in this cookbook are all, as far as I can tell, professional foodies, most of them actively cooking for very high end restaurants. Many of the ingredients are (again, to me) bizarre and difficult to source. A few examples: fennel pollen (p. 30), moscatel vinegar (p.34, presumably sherry vinegar would be an acceptable substitute?), 300g (10½oz) beef muscle, from a happy, grass-fed cow (p. 42), salted wild garlic capers (same recipe), gentian liqueur (Kamm & Sons for preference, p. 70), etc. There is also a lot of very specialized and expensive kitchen equipment specified in the recipes.

I usually try to test several recipes before reviewing cookbooks, however, this time around, I could only easily source the ingredients for one of the recipes: Cherry Kirsch Cake (p. 110). It was lovely, and I closely followed the directions (including adding eggs one at a time with flour to prevent splitting), but my cake split quite ferociously. I think if I try the recipe again, I will probably add a pan of water to increase the humidity in the oven (or maybe source eggs from truly happy chickens) ;)

The photography is lovely and compliments the recipes very well. (I was also fascinated by the varied and beautiful tattoos of the creators pictured in the book).

Final thoughts. VERY fancy, very trendy, fairly difficult. For foodies who intend to impress and really love the process of food and creating food.

Three and a half stars, would be 4-5 for die-hard foodies.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
Profile Image for Jo.
649 reviews4 followers
November 26, 2017
Delicious and practical. The book contains easy steps recipes for cocktail parties. The recipes can be used from summer festivities to New Year’s Eve. Fresh and creative!
Profile Image for Victoria Peipert.
214 reviews6 followers
November 5, 2017
Loved the execution, concept, images, and recipes. While the cocktails I could definitely see myself making, the food recipes were a bit more impractical and there were only a handful that I felt comfortable and even slightly confident enough to try and tackle. If this is meant to be an homage to the industry and friendships than that's fine but if it's meant to inspire cooks at home, it falls a little short.
Profile Image for Stuart.
Author 1 book22 followers
February 23, 2020
I am a food and drink maker by both passion and profession and I consume a large quantity of recipes and recipe-based information on a daily basis. I ran across Mr. Lyan in an articule in PUNCH magazine and was instantly impressed with his method for microwaving sherry and aromatics to make an infusion. I immediately purchased both of his books.

This is Mr. Lyan's second book, a cook book/cocktail book/look book that brings together somewhere around a dozen of London's best restauranteurs. They make the food, Mr. Lyan pairs the drinks. Save for one chapter, where the reverse is true.

Gorgeously photographed and neatly laid-out, the drink recipes are breathtaking in their innovation and the food recipes, while at times finicky, will push the home chef towards higher standards of preparation and presentation.

Extremely fun read, I look forward to making (and, as Mr. Lyan insists, modifying) many of these drinks.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews